CIA Chief: Current GWOT Tactics, Creating More Terrorists

Unfortunately, despite all our progress against [Daesh] on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach. The resources needed for terrorism are very modest, and the group would have to suffer even heavier losses of territory, manpower, and money for its terrorist capacity to decline significantly.

Fallujah civilians: ‘Militias take turns to torture us’

As the Iraqi armed forces and allied militias continue their battle to take Fallujah from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), a growing number of civilians have said that they were tortured after escaping the besieged city. In one tent in the Amiriyat al-Fallujah camp, which is hosting displaced people […]

McCain: Obama ‘directly responsible’ for Orlando shooting

Republican Sen. John McCain said Thursday that President Barack Obama is “directly responsible” for the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, because Obama has allowed the growth of the Islamic State group on his watch. McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, made the comment to reporters Thursday while Obama was in Orlando […]

The Conversation About War and Our Veterans We Refuse to Have

“You can shoot her…” the First Sergeant tells me. “Technically.” We’re standing on a rooftop watching black smoke pillars rise from a section of the city where two of my teammates are taking machine gun fire. Below, the small cluster of homes we’ve taken over is taking sporadic fire as well. He hands me his […]

Iraqi troops in southern Fallujah for first time in 2 years

A column of black Humvees carrying Iraqi special forces rolled into southern Fallujah on Wednesday, the first time in more than two years that government troops have entered the western city held by the Islamic State group. The counterterrorism troops fought house-to-house battles with the militants in the Shuhada neighborhood, and the operation to retake […]

Iraq’s child soldiers: ‘What happened to our boys?’

The child soldier posed for the camera, holding a machine-gun and wearing black clothes and army boots. He refused to give his name or his age, but it was obvious from his appearance – his facial hair barely grown – that he was only a teenager. The boy fights along with Hashd Al Ameriat – a shia militia. The […]

Iraq’s Shia Militias Accused of War Crimes in Fight Against ISIS

The stalled battle to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah from ISIS has given way to another grim development: accusations of human rights abuses against fleeing refugees by pro-Iraqi government forces. The largely Shia militia group officially known as Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), headed by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a U.S.-designated terrorist has, according to the United […]

The Iraqi Army Is Flying Chinese-Made Killer Drones

Last year the Iraqi military took delivery of three Chinese CH-4 Cai Hong drones, an aircraft that, according to its creators, is better than the American MQ-1B Predator. That claim is now being put to the test as the drones carry out strikes against ISIS with bombs and laser-guided missiles. The CH-4s are flying from Al-Hayy airbase in support […]